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We will not give back our babies, insist the mothers given wrong daughters in hospital mix-up
Last updated at 15:52pm on 12.10.07The mothers at the centre of an astonishing baby mixup last night refused to swop back their daughters.
The two women, who have cared for the girls for ten months, said they could not go through with the exchange agreed earlier this week.
Jaroslava Trojanova and Jaroslava Cermakova, both 25, gave birth in the southern Czech town of Trebic last December.
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Reunited: Jaroslava Trojanova with biological daughter Veronika and Jaroslava Cermakova with Nikola
But it was only last month that the suspicions of one of the fathers led to the revelation that their children had been accidentally exchanged in hospital.
Jaroslava Cermakova and her husband Jan have been living with Veronika, although their real daughter is Nikola.
Jaroslava Trojanova and her partner, Libor Broza, took home Nikola, although Veronika is really their child.
The families struggled to cope with their extraordinary predicament before deciding on a pre-Christmas swap.
But yesterday Miss Trojanova was adamant she could not give up her non-biological baby.
"I cannot even begin to imagine a life without Nikola," said the factory worker.
"How can I now see her as someone else's child and not my own?"
Mrs Cermakova, who is pregnant again, also insisted she would not hand over the girl she was given.
"I have loved my daughter for almost a year now," she said.
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Jaroslava Cermakova with her real daughter Nikola
"This time cannot be erased from my heart. But I will learn to love my other, biological daughter too."
The couples have moved into a retreat and have discussed raising their children as 'one big family'.
Disagreeing with his partner, Mr Broza, 29, insisted he wanted to take home his real daughter Veronika.
"We are facing a horrible dilemma and the mothers are suffering the most," he said.
"But we will eventually need to swop our babies back.
"I would like to have my own daughter, although my love for Nikola will never diminish."
The county court in Zdar Nad Sazavou ruled yesterday that the birth certificates would not be changed and that the couples should simply swop babies.
That means that Nikola will legally assume Veronika's identity and vice versa.
Mr Cermakova, who is out of work, said: "We are completely cluelessas how to go about this, it is such a horrible situation.
"But we agree on one thing: our daughters will have four parents. We will raise them together as one big family.
"We are bonded together for ever by this terrible fate of ours. My wife and I, we say that we will have two daughters from now on.
"It would be impossible to simply give up on our baby, even if we are not the biological parents."
The Cermakovas live in Trebic, 30 minutes' drive from Jablonov, the home village of Mr Broza and Miss Trojanova.
Mr Cermakova, 26, said the families-were considering whether they could settle in the same place.
The mistake arose when nurses failed to write the children's surnames on their leg bracelets.
The mix-up was revealed after Mr Broza, a lorry driver, became suspicious because both he and his partner are dark-haired while their baby was blonde.
He took a DNA test, the results of which strained his relationship with Miss Trojanova until she had a DNA test herself and they found neither was related to Nikola.
The shocked couple alerted Trebic hospital and more DNA tests confirmed the blunder.
Reader views (15)
The father had the DNA because of comments made be other people about the baby not looking like EITHER of them.
Tragic set of circumstances that they had no control over. I think maybe with time the couples will be able to make the swap, once they have gotten over the shock, its going to take time. Its better now whilst the babies won't remember than if this had been discovered 10 years down the line!
- Julie, Essex
If the mothers both think this, then it's the right decision. The children are too young to understand anything other than that the person who has loved them and cared for them since their birth is their mother. Someone else taking them over would inevitably cause distress, and in the worse case a new maternal bond might completely fail to form. They've been accidentally but successfully adopted, and if the mothers both still think of the "wrong" child as their child now the truth is revealed, that should be the end of it (other than legalising matters with adoption papers).
- Nigel, London
I think that in saying they'll live together and raise both girls as one big family is actually a very responsible and mature way to approach the situation.
- Marg, London
This is absurd. Your biological child is your responsibility no matter what. Pathetic.
- Jay, London, UK
Sorry, but if an exchange cannot be arranged then the children should be taken into care. Think how they might be affected if at some later date the mother turned on them and said words to the effect that 'you're not mine'.
- Peter Haldane, London
I am a mother and if I found out at ten months that the child that I am raising is not mine I would look for my biological one. The reason: When the child grows up and he/she wants to know why he/she does not look like me or her daddy and I tell him/her the truth he/she might just decide to look for the biological parents and leave me. I would be heartbroken. I would rather go through it when the child is still young than older.
- Neeltjie, Johannesburg, SA
Heartbreaking, as a mother I really wouldn't know what to do. I normally have very clear ideas on things like abortion and such like, but this stumps me, I think I'd be inclined to want to keep the "daughter" that I had brought up for the last year. Bit like adoption, even though a person is the biological parent, does it make them the "mummy" or "daddy"?
- Sandra, London
In ten years time they will say: "I'm not your real mummy, they mixed you both up when you were born and we bonded with the wrong babies, so that's your real mummy over there, and I'm her daugher's mummy". Is no-one thinking of the children in this case. What a couple of nutters.
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
If my husband went behind my back and had a DNA test to verify that our children were his it would be the end of our relationship. Though it is lucky they found the error now and not years down the road when the heartache would be double.
- Kathleen, Connecticut, USA
Steve, did you read the story - says pretty clearly that they gave birth in a hospital near the Czech/Austrian border!
Sad for everyone involved.
- Mags, Nottingham, UK
Steve...they were born on the Czech/Austrian border, am I missing your point here?
- Helen, London
Excellent Frank!
Guess they should have stayed in the Czech Republic and had the job done properly rather than in the UK on the NHS - doing things on the cheap isn't a good idea.
- Steve, London
Cj, How old are you? Maybe the father was suspicious that the child doesn't look like him or his partner. Get the drift mate instead of wasting office time uttering nonsense.
- Owen, Hendon
Why did the father have the DNA test in the first place? Why did he doubt that he was the real father? All sounds very dodgy indeed.
- Cj, London
Here, you have the ugly one!
What a cock up.
- Frank, Home Counties, England
